


No One

by themoonlightreveals



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet, Gen, Introspection, Magic, Past Grief/Mourning, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Ro's not feeling so good guys, Then again nobody is cmon this is a death game, again. sort of, sort of its weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21635764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themoonlightreveals/pseuds/themoonlightreveals
Summary: After watching Tana and Gabby die at the same time, hope is scarce.Ro is tired of unanswered questions.Joey has an idea.The team gets help from two familiar faces.
Relationships: The Detective | Matthew Patrick & The Jet Setter | Rosanna Pansino, The Detective | Matthew Patrick & The Troublemaker | Nikita Dragun, The Savant | Joey Graceffa & The Socialite | Rosanna Pansino, The Socialite | Rosanna Pansino & Matthew Patrick
Kudos: 21





	No One

No one’s asked what they’ve all been thinking. Ro’s seen them all shuffle nervously, shift on their feet and side eye Joey for the 1 hour she’s been with them, yet no one dared tackle the elephant in the room. If she was being honest, she didn’t want anybody to ask.

Really, if they were the dead ones, who were the ones that got away?

-

Ro remembered the mysterious disappearances. After JC had died it hadn’t been that hard to guess that Everlock hadn’t been Joey’s first run around the murder party block, although she’d thought, in a particular moment of bitterness, that he should’ve known better. The police had never connected the case to Joey most likely thanks to all the evil magic happening at the parties, so it remained a cold case – probably. That was the catch wasn’t it? Because as late in the game as Ro had died (and she didn’t want to think about that this exact moment) and although Mat had still been alive during her challenge, she had no way of knowing if her brother was alive. If she were alive, or in the real world, she could have checked easily; she wouldn’t even need to go to his house. No, with Mat’s dedication to his work and to justice she would need only pick up a newspaper: if the disappearances were explained, the case cracked and Joey awaiting sentence, then he was alive. If not…well, she didn’t really want to think about that possibility. 

So therein laid her problem. She wasn’t alive, and definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto, and too much of a coward to outright ask Joey if her brother was alive. 

-

Tana and Gabby’s deaths made her a weird sort of queasy. It felt like her head was stuffed with cotton and everything from her stomach was trying to crawl back up to escape; Ro wasn’t sure if it was the normal reaction. Letting out a hysterical little laugh at that thought, Alex turned to her in concern but she waved him off. What was the normal reaction to seeing two of your friends die in front of you again? She supposed she hadn’t been confronted with death in such a head on manner before. She had won her challenge against Teala and ran away before The Man with No Name had killed her, and through the quiet guilt she feels whenever she thinks about they had done to Colleen she remembered no body. (Colleen’s screams, she did. Ro supposed she should feel grateful she hadn’t had to sleep since her death because she wasn’t sure she could have.) Seeing Gabby and Tana lay on the ground unnaturally still wasn’t an image she would forget soon.

She just felt unsteady. Ro plopped down on the sofa and eyed their collection of keys so far unhappily. Colleen was making a good point in the background. For once, not a lack time, or of resources, or of fighting spirit stood in their way, but a lack of people. She had to remain positive though, if not for her sake then for the team’s.  
“Let’s do this. Let’s do this together, we got this.” The general murmur of agreement that followed put her mind at ease a bit. Was it silly to hope that they could all get out alive this time? Were they all cold hearted for seemingly moving on so quickly from their friends’ deaths? 

Joey dragged a long sigh out of his chest as he fell next to Ro on the couch, cutting off her train of thought. As if on cue, the others took their seats as well, looking well worn out. 

“Let’s try to relax before the next challenge.” Joey said, a bit redundantly. They had fallen into a routine already: challenge, monster, drawing, death, repeat. They’d learned to make the most out of the quiet moments. 

So Ro did. Next to her, Bretman was checking his (perfectly manicured) nails nervously. It was fairly obvious that he hadn’t been through anything like this before, not because he was nervous, since they all were anyway, but because he was the liveliest. Which Ro supposed was ironic, considering they were in purgatory. In any case, he was a great guy and his hopefulness really helped team morale. 

On the armchair closest to the keys was sat Colleen, who kept throwing glances outside through the window, towards where they had come from, and then quickly back to their group. The Black Knight was dead, and although it wouldn’t even surprise her if he was actually a zombie or something, Ro had an inkling that wasn’t the real problem, so she decided to test out a theory. 

“Joey, do you mind giving me a glass from the table?” She made sure to use the best puppy eyes she could muster right now.

“Girl…” Joey grumbled halfheartedly, leaning forward to give her what she’d asked for and drifting closer to Colleen in the process. Ro watched quietly as Colleen’s hawk-like gaze followed Joey’s hand as it approached her, tensing up and folding her legs under her armchair when it was right in front of her. ‘The scientific method prevails’ Ro pondered grimly, her hypothesis proven correct.

‘Mat would be so proud.’ The thought was only slightly sardonic.

She supposed forgiveness didn’t equal trust.

She belatedly thanked Joey and drank the whole glass, tearing her thought away from Colleen. Instead, she found herself watching their leader. He was also looking outside, but with a steady gaze. His face was set with somber determination, the same kind she had seen on him in Everlock. Speaking of which, she was tired of being afraid. Before she could think any better, she asked:

“Who survived Everlock?”

Joey turned to her, surprised, but as he opened his mouth to answer his face lit up. 

“That’s it! I know how to get more people!” He looked around, clearly searching for the same excitement on his teammates’ faces.

“Could be useful,” Alex agreed. “But…”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” came Colleen’s quiet objection. “Not to be grim guys but if we die here we die here. It wouldn’t be the first time. But if we bring in more people we’d just endanger their lives, and they’d be unexperienced and a liability anyway.” 

“Hey!” protested Bretman in the background.

“No, look, it’s perfect. They’ve been training with the Society Against Evil ok? Nikita and Mat know what they’re doing.” 

Ro knew there was a second part to Joey’s little explanation, but she couldn’t hear it.

“Mat’s alive?” she breathed. She was unsteady again, but this time the feeling was overpowered by the sheer, ridiculous joy she was feeling. She put her head in her hands and let herself feel, because Mat was alive. Mat was alive and he had gone back to the police and solved the disappearances like he had wanted to. Mat was alive. Her brother was alive. He was alive and...had trained with the SAE? That was when the situation caught up with her. She threw her head up again, and noticed everyone looking at her, Collen and Joey in understanding and Bretman and Alex with confusion.

“Mat is alive,” Ro enunciated slowly, “and you want to bring him here?” She trained her gaze on Joey, who gained a hard glint in his eyes. 

“Ro, we need everyone we can get.” He stated, as if that was enough.

“Sure,” she agreed sweetly and narrowed her eyes, “we just don’t need Mat.”

She could feel Bretman eying her wearily but she didn’t break eye contact with Joey. Behind him, Collen had a torn look on her face, stuck between sympathy and practicality. Ro would have normally empathized with that, under any other conditions. As it was, bringing Mat to this death game when he had escaped Everlock was out of the question. 

“He’s a great detective, an even better puzzle solver, and, like Joey said, he’s been training with the SAE.” Colleen said. “We need someone with his skills.”   
Ro knew that. She knew that. But…

“He’s my brother.” She didn’t look any of them in the eye. Did she need to say anything else? They had to have understood. Mat was her brother. As much as she knew they sorely needed people, and even more so Mat and his brilliant mind, doing this would go against everything she is as a person. She couldn’t.

“Look,” started Joey with a sigh, “Nikita, Mat and I were all supposed to come here originally, but some weird magic destabilized the portal. The way I see it, they would find a way to come here eventually and the only thing we can do is wait, and potentially let more of us die, or speed up the process.” He shrugged. Ro closed her eyes and pressed her knuckles to them hard enough to see static.

Joey noticed her hesitance and pressed on. “Your brother came here to save people. Do you think he’d want to stay on the sidelines?” It was better thinking that in her own head, where she could ignore it and stuff it down, rather than hearing it said out loud. 

She kind of hated herself in that moment, but they were on a time limit. “Fine.” She looked back at Joey, who had lost the edge in his eyes. There was a logistics issue here. “You said something about a portal; do you even know how to do that?” If Joey knew magic and hadn’t used it until now she might have to vote him into every challenge after all.

He grinned. “No, but I have this.” From one of his many inside pockets Joey took out what looked like a miniature antenna. “It’s a homing beacon! It should help Nikita and Mat find this dimension’s coordinates again. And,” he put his hand up when Alex opened his mouth to argue, “I would’ve used this before but it broke when the portal destabilized. We just need to repair it.”

“Great.” Colleen deflated. “Maybe the museum has a future exhibit and they’ll help right before trying to kill us,” she smiled sarcastically.

“Well, this thing is magic and…” Joey hesitantly pointed at the Sorceress, who had been watching them like an unfolding car accident. 

“You wanna trust her of all people for this, man?!” Alex gestured to the spellcaster in obvious distate and shuffled away from her when her eyes fell on him.

“I don’t think we have any other choice.” Joey swept a glance over the group and Ro gave a hesitant nod. He tossed the beacon to the Sorceress, who brought it to her face between two fingers. 

“Sure,” she grinned at Joey. “Why not? But you owe me one.” Her hand with the beacon pointed at him with an accusatory nail, but Ro didn’t miss her other arm inch ever so slightly towards her dagger.

“Okay.”

Ro allowed herself another brief moment of bitterness to wonder if they would be any better than Joey in bringing people to their possible death, but it was cut short by the Sorceress bringing the beacon closer to her face again. It glowed a blinding red for a second and, swaying slightly on her feet, the magician placed the device on the floor.

“Doesn’t she do anything?” asked Bretman, referring to the unmoving antenna.

“Nothing we can see, but any second now-“ his speech got interrupted as a swirling mass of blue energy cut through the air, and time slowed down for Ro. A foot stepped through with a resounding clack and, painstakingly, carefully, her brother and Nikita tread through the inky space between worlds. He was so much like she remembered: poised, ready to act, hand hovering above the gun on his hip, determination in his eyes and undeniably, unflinchingly, alive. Not a hair out of place, not a button missing from his shirt, not a seam ripped on his jacket, and suddenly the world felt right again. Mat’s face was just starting to break into a grin at Joey when Ro all but threw herself at him and almost sent them through the closing portal. He startled but his arms closed around her reflexively and she squeezed hard enough to feel his heartbeat and the rumble of his throat when he murmured “Ro.”, only to find the arm around her shoulders tightening painfully and she realized what should have been obvious: he had mourned too, more than she could have in an hour.

-

They had a little more time before the next monster attack slash challenge, which they had promptly decided to spend catching up. 

“So,” started Ro when she and Mat were away from the group for a bit, an unreadable look in her eyes, “how much time is Joey looking at?” 

Mat did a double take. “Time?”

She smiled in nervous expectation “In jail. For the disappearances.”

“Ah,” he let his eyes wonder around the room but his lips pressed thinly together. When he looked back at her, it was with newfound tightness in his expression. “I couldn’t do that. At the end of the day, even if I wanted to convict him, SAE wouldn’t have let me. You see why, right? If I wanted to have anything close to a strong case I would’ve had to try to base it on magic.”

“But there were artifacts left! And spells, things that actually work!” 

At that, Mat’s face hardened. “If people find out magic is real our job is going to be that much harder, not to mention widespread panic. We’re thinking about the good of the many.” He had that stubborn look in his eyes that told Ro that there would be no convincing him, but she hadn’t missed the casual use of ‘we’. 

She still loved her brother to pieces, but she wasn’t so sure about the Society.

**Author's Note:**

> Another s4 au,,,,,i have nothing to say except i am weak for sibling dynamics.  
> Im sure this has a few inconsistencies but honetly. I wrote this months ago   
> Again, inspired by an au idea of a friend of mine.


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